[Letters] Follow Obama’s example

There seem to be some similarities between Lee Myung-bak and his Grand National Party, Korea’s majority party and their American counterparts, Barack Obama and his Democratic Party.

Both parties took majority of the seats in their legislatures, Korea’s National Assembly and the U.S. Congress, after years of being the minority opposition. In both cases, a man and a woman battled for their party’s nomination for the presidency. Park Geun-hye, the former GNP chairwoman, lost the primary election to Lee Myung-bak in South Korea and likewise, Hillary Clinton lost to Barack Obama in the U.S. In another coincidence, both parties took power after two presidential terms in their countries.

But the two cases are hugely different. Once in the White House, President Obama named Clinton, his main rival in the primary, as his secretary of state, in charge of his administration’s U.S. diplomacy. In Korea, although President Lee promised to make Park a partner in his administration, it never happened in his Blue House. Instead, there are two factions in the GNP, one pro-Lee and the other pro-Park, threatening to split the party.

Seeing the two factions fighting, saving face and striving to push their own interests, the continuing internal power struggle is obvious to see and its role in their defeat in the by-elections on April 29. Unless these cracks are mended the party will definitely lose people’s trust and votes in another upcoming by-elections.

Look what President Obama did. There are no pro-Obama or pro-Hillary factions in the Democratic Party. They have the firm support of the people.

It is time for the GNP factions to give way to others, understand each other, and put aside their own emotions and interests.

In the end, they are in the same party. It is of no use to fight each other; it only allows opposition parties to grab a strong foothold. In addition, President Lee should keep his promise. Get Park into his administration and work closely and harmoniously with her. The same goes for the party members. Don’t waste energy in useless fighting and put more effort in making laws to benefit the people.

I am a fan of neither the Democratic Party nor the Grand National Party. But just watching my country’s main political party struggling worries me, an ordinary 19-year-old high school boy.

Let’s see collaboration between Lee and Park, like Obama and Clinton.

Jeong Yeong-hun, student, Posung High